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Former MSNBC anchor Joy Reid condemned President Donald Trump, Elvis Presley and others on Friday as some of history’s many “mediocre White men” whose achievements are stolen or counterfeit.
Reid criticized Trump’s review of the Smithsonian during an interview with Wajahat Ali for his “The Left Hook” substack, in an episode titled, “How Mediocre White Men and Their Fragility Are Destroying America.”
They argued that across America’s institutions, there is a phenomenon of “mediocre White men” with no actual culture of their own who co-opt the achievements of Black people to aggrandize themselves.
Ali opened the episode by talking about Trump reforming the Kennedy Center in what his critics call a hostile takeover. The institution, which in recent years had featured drag queen performances, is now being reformed to show decidedly more conservative and pro-American content. Trump announced this year’s Kennedy Center awards last week, which he will also be hosting.
JOY REID FLOATS SPECULATION THAT HER RACE, ‘ANXIETY’ SURROUNDING TRUMP PLAYED ROLE IN MSNBC FIRING
Joy Reid was one of MSNBC’s most controversial anchors for her rhetoric on race, and since her firing, she has continued her same line of incendiary racial commentary. (Arturo Holmes/Getty Images for Essence)
“These people cannot create culture on their own,” Ali said. “Without Black people, Brown people, the DEIs, there’s no culture in America. We make the food better. We make the economy better. We make the music better. Right? MAGA can’t create culture. They got Cracker Barrel and Kid Rock.”
Reid and Ali claimed that White conservatives practice their own variant of outrage culture where they complain about what they say. “They don’t have the intellectual rigor to actually argue or debate with us, right? And what they do is they tattle and tell. They run and tell teacher that ‘the Black lady or the Brown man was mean to me.’ And that’s what they always do,” Reid said.
Reid, who initially wore a hat dedicated to the historically debatable 1619 Project, then changed to one with the letters “FDT,” took special umbrage at Trump’s efforts to review the Smithsonian’s historical exhibits ahead of America’s 250th anniversary.
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Wajahat Ali hosts Joy Reid on his “Left Hook” podcast episode, “How Mediocre White Men and Their Fragility Are Destroying America (with Joy-Ann Reid).”
“They can’t fix the history they did. Their ancestors made this country into a slave — a slave hell, but they can clean it up now because they got the Smithsonian. They can get rid of all the slavery stuff,” she said. “They got PragerU that can lie about the history to the children. They can’t originally invent anything more than they ever were able to invent good music.
“We Black folk gave y’all country music, hip-hop, R&B, jazz, rock and roll. They couldn’t even invent that, but they have to call a White man ‘The King.’ Because they couldn’t make rock and roll, so they have to stamp ‘The King’ on a man whose main song was stolen from an overweight Black woman,” Reid continued.
Reid was referring to “The King” Elvis Presley singing “Hound Dog,” which was first recorded by Big Mama Thornton, a Black blues singer, and written by two Jewish-American songwriters. Elvis’ version, which was more upbeat, with a faster rhythm and slightly altered lyrics, boosted his rise to fame in 1956 after his previous breakout hit, “Heartbreak Hotel” earlier that year. Elvis helped pioneer the rockabilly (a portmanteau of rock ‘n’ roll and “hillbilly”) sub-genre of rock ‘n’ roll, a mix of country music and rhythm and blues, and was candid throughout his career about his influences from Black American music.
Elvis Presley on stage with his band on “The Ed Sullivan Show,” Los Angeles, Sept. 9, 1956. (CBS Photo Archive/Getty Images)
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White House spokesman Harrison Fields responded to Reid’s comments, saying she was “too unhinged for MSNBC.”
“Joyless Reid is an ungrateful hack who fails to acknowledge her privilege. Whatever remains of her success would only be possible in the United States of America, the same country she degrades for sport. She was too unhinged for MSNBC and was fired. Instead of changing her act, she’s doubled down on stupid,” he said.
Fox News Digital reached out to PragerU and did not receive an immediate reply.